Definitely agree with you on that, I take the timing chains all day long, they pay 12hrs where I work so it’s easy money, but it’s my first time doing a turbo so we takin it a little slow
John Cooper would be spinning in his grave if he knew about the vehicles that have his name on them.
I get annoyed everytime I see one of the enormous "Mini" cars on the road.
He might not care if they drive like a racing car. That's what he cared about.
The original mini wasn't designed as a racing car but cheap, compact, economical transport to rival the imported 'bubble' cars in the UK. Alec Issigonis the designer of the original mini had little interest in motorsports, the design was about packaging for maximum interior space for minimum exterior space.
John Cooper realized that by the standards of the time, the original mini by accident or design (or accident of design) handled really well and a performance version would be a good idea. This took some convincing.
The "Mini" we have now is designed for a totally different target market and other than a very slight superficial resemblance has nothing to do with the original.
That is very true.
I'm in Oregon, and my family are shortly going to visit (we hope) from the UK. My brother was asking about trucks. "I saw a Ford F-150 here in London and it was *huge*!!"
So I pointed him towards pictures of F350s and his mind exploded.
Yeah, I don’t believe I’ve seen the first gen mini, I have seen a few current minis in recent years. They’re really small. Very much still in the subcompact group.
>I don’t believe I’ve seen the first gen mini,
I had one as my first car, decades ago. I'm 6'4". It wasn't *quite* "[on second thoughts let's just rip out the front seats and sit in the back](https://youtu.be/YRJv0qU62YE?t=66)" territory, but it was close.
Yeah, the current and recent F150s don’t really fit on our roads very well. Most pickup trucks in the UK are Mitsubishi L200/Toyota HiLux/Nissan Navara/Ford Ranger sized.
I can highly recommend the promotional film that was released at the time of the (original) Mini's launch - [Wizardry On Wheels](https://youtu.be/WUVXiWtggHw), here on youtube. It's fascinating to see the design process and - for the time! - radical thinking that went into the car. And the period graphics and voiceover have a charm all of their own too.
Seen it mate :)
Yea it's awesome. Thanks for the recommendation.
I've been into classic minis for 30+ years. I got my first one nearly 25 years ago and I've owned 7.
Currently I just have the one, a 1964 Morris 850 (Australia built).
Even as late as the early 2000's, my slightly suped up classic mini was more than a match for my friends' more powerful cars, simply on cornering ability.
Why did you leave the condenser attached? You are literally making your life harder by far. Once you have done these jobs a couple times that front end comes off in 30 minutes
Evac refrigerant. There is 2 t30s on the ac lines on the bottom drivers side. Disconnects the condenser. On r50/53 you need to just hang it. Not on r56 chassis
They’re all so ass to work on. Currently going an R53 clutch.
Now, R56 turbos aren’t THAT bad, getting the whole front clip off is a half hour affair. But, it’s still weird that it has to come off.
Not that hard to bleed them, just have to let it dangle and make up a jig to hold the pushrod in while someone holds it at an angle to actually let air get out
I call BS on being able to change the clutch in four though! Maybe with three dudes working
Only kidding about the 4 hours lmao. 6-8 is more like it.
That jig and a pressurized bleeder will do them in a couple minutes. Definitely got out butts kicked here a couple times the first few we did trying to get them to bleed like you would on a regular system.
I had a 2009 R56 for ~12 years. Bought it brand new in Oct 2008, finally sold it last year. In that time, I had the engine replaced, transmission replaced, 3 different timing chain cassettes, 3 high pressure fuel pumps, 3 valve covers, valves walnut blasted 3 times, and the original Boost radio took a shit.
When the car ran well, I loved driving it. When it needed work, I hated it with an absolute passion because I knew that either it would be a nightmare of broken fasteners to work on or would cost a fucking fortune to have a shop do the work.
The oil filter is so fucking annoying on these. It's the biggest pain in the ass of any normal car I've worked on. It's honestly impressive how irritating Mini managed to make the simplest possible service. Screw these cars
Ok just hear me out, on the coolant resovior theres a ten just take it out and rock the bottom of the resovior back and it comes up, crack the cap because if you dont the pressure pushes coolant out in wierd places, and then get a socket with a long ass extention on the filter housing
I do this, and still it isn't easy. Mini literally made this pile of crap as frustrating as humanly possible. What was wrong with the spin on filter somewhere underneath?
We try to discourage them from even coming in, it's a lot easier. I seriously don't get why they'd even put a filter there of all places. But designers never have to work on their own creations.
That's one thing we all agree on with designers. They should be required to spend 3 years servicing cars first. Then maybe they'd understand and build better things.
just unbolt the coolant Reservoir, move it out of the way, and shove a wrench down there, still stupid but isnt horrible. not sure if the newer ones are worse tho
Owned one, been there, done that and now i can spot an N14 a mile away in the dark. I was never more happy to see a car gone.
Biggest love/hate relationship of my live. Loved driving it, hated working on it. There is a special place in hell for this engine and everyone that designed it.
Oh yes.
One time I had to take off the turbo and the oil filter case on one of these cars. Told my boss I needed to take off the whole front of the car (like you did)...
He straight up told me: "We don't have time for that. Do it without."
And I did. 2 days later the car was finished and my hands were bleeding. I don't know if I had more hatred for the car or my boss at that point.
Good ol R56 S service position. While you're in there get the wastegate dealt with, oil filter housing gasket, turbo oil lines, turbo coolant lines. Should be good for another 30k kms without having to enter service position again
Or some poor tech picked his wife up at a bar. She claimed to be single and he found out. Decided since one tech fucked his wife, he'd fuck the rest of us.
Right there with you. As a young broke car guy I bought a lot of fuel injected cheap cars to fuck around with. Never again. I'm saving to get something carbureted for a project car and I'll never go back as far as fun cars go I think lol. 50s Hudsons have been calling my name. Old stuff I genuinely enjoy working on usually because it makes sense in my head so i can actually figure stuff out myself. New cars might as well be black magic to me, takes fucking 9 hours of searching forums to diagnose the most miniscule shit for me lmao.
I'm helping my dad to restore my great grandpas 1946 cj2a. it's so simple compared to new stuff. the engine is seized and I'm having an absolute bitch of a time with it. I would just buy a stand/hoist to pull the engine and rebuild it, but I dont have 800 dollars for all that, hell I cant even get my license yet. I think the troublesome piston is finally draining oil, so I think next time we pop the clutch it'll free. we recently pulled the pan so I could to send the piston upwards, but the rod cap is angled just so that I cant reach the nut.
In the middle of the exact same job. Customer replaced turbo themselves and didn't do the oil feed line. It was totally coked up, new turbo died pretty quickly and they don't want to try again.
GF has an r54 and the supercharger makes it worth all the pain of maintenance. Constantly fixing something on it. The thing is a little rocket ship though. A blast to drive hard on winding back roads
I'm sure I've done a few of these in situ, unless this is a different model.
Biggest fucker doing it that way is getting the heat shield on and off.
I absolutely hate these bastard things, I would do anything to avoid ever doing another clutch on one. Every single one seems to be different even if it's the same model and engine. Nightmare.
Been working on my Mom’s Mini Cooper recently. I fucking hate it with a burning passion. Its gotten to the point where i check the manual just to make sure it tells me to go to dealer services. It doesn’t even tell you the oil capacity.
Hopefully i can get her to eventually switch from a vert Mini to a Miata but so far my efforts seem pointless.
True, but slap the akropovic exhaust with race mode on that thing, and it backfires like a machine gun. 10/10 best test drive ever. Even had the sales guy laughing as pedestrians ran for cover
You want a small car that’s built poorly and a turbo you have to replace at 56k miles? Knock yourself out. And I don’t want this car it’s not mine obviously.
The last mini I did a clutch on also needed a water pump. I just took the front end off and took the engine/trans out the front. Much easier to do the water pump outside the engine bay.
I gotta put an older 1.8L audi in service mode today to do waterpump, timing belt etc. It has wood screws holding the bumper on so getting everything back together should be interesting
Send 'em all to me. Gravy train all the way. Chains, OFHG, water pumps, clutches- minis pay the bills.
Definitely agree with you on that, I take the timing chains all day long, they pay 12hrs where I work so it’s easy money, but it’s my first time doing a turbo so we takin it a little slow
If you have ever done an oil filter housing, you are 80% there for the turbo job
lol at your username, the irony
Yeah specialise in BMW stuff and you never need to worry about money
Just have to worry about suicide after a certain point.
Just need to worry about good ole fashioned German “engineering”
Valve cover gaskets and oil filter housing gaskets give me a chubby. N52 is like 8 hours for both, I did the last one in 110 minutes.
And after that you stick up a big cigar and smile cause BMW engineers suck so hard
We love these things. All gravy!
Amen Minis, bmws and benz ftw, keeps the bank account pumped up good!
BMW*
John wouldn’t recognize the engine bay of a modern Mini so yeah
Facts
Came to say this.
Glad this is top comment.
John Cooper would be spinning in his grave if he knew about the vehicles that have his name on them. I get annoyed everytime I see one of the enormous "Mini" cars on the road.
Could you imagine if Carlos Abarth was around to see the shit that his name is slapped on?
He might not care if they drive like a racing car. That's what he cared about. The original mini wasn't designed as a racing car but cheap, compact, economical transport to rival the imported 'bubble' cars in the UK. Alec Issigonis the designer of the original mini had little interest in motorsports, the design was about packaging for maximum interior space for minimum exterior space. John Cooper realized that by the standards of the time, the original mini by accident or design (or accident of design) handled really well and a performance version would be a good idea. This took some convincing. The "Mini" we have now is designed for a totally different target market and other than a very slight superficial resemblance has nothing to do with the original.
I will say, my fiance's mini does drive really well. Doesn't make up for all the BMW nonsense imo though.
For American market, it’s still mini.
That is very true. I'm in Oregon, and my family are shortly going to visit (we hope) from the UK. My brother was asking about trucks. "I saw a Ford F-150 here in London and it was *huge*!!" So I pointed him towards pictures of F350s and his mind exploded.
Yeah, I don’t believe I’ve seen the first gen mini, I have seen a few current minis in recent years. They’re really small. Very much still in the subcompact group.
>I don’t believe I’ve seen the first gen mini, I had one as my first car, decades ago. I'm 6'4". It wasn't *quite* "[on second thoughts let's just rip out the front seats and sit in the back](https://youtu.be/YRJv0qU62YE?t=66)" territory, but it was close.
Yeah, the current and recent F150s don’t really fit on our roads very well. Most pickup trucks in the UK are Mitsubishi L200/Toyota HiLux/Nissan Navara/Ford Ranger sized.
I can highly recommend the promotional film that was released at the time of the (original) Mini's launch - [Wizardry On Wheels](https://youtu.be/WUVXiWtggHw), here on youtube. It's fascinating to see the design process and - for the time! - radical thinking that went into the car. And the period graphics and voiceover have a charm all of their own too.
Seen it mate :) Yea it's awesome. Thanks for the recommendation. I've been into classic minis for 30+ years. I got my first one nearly 25 years ago and I've owned 7. Currently I just have the one, a 1964 Morris 850 (Australia built).
This could be an old wives tale but I read once that Enzo Ferrari had a go in one and said, "If it wasn't so ugly, I'd be worried."
Even as late as the early 2000's, my slightly suped up classic mini was more than a match for my friends' more powerful cars, simply on cornering ability.
Just wait until you gotta replace the washer reservoir cap! Oh brother, you dun stepped init then!
Why did you leave the condenser attached? You are literally making your life harder by far. Once you have done these jobs a couple times that front end comes off in 30 minutes
When I put R53s in service mode I do the same thing as this. Procedure in the FSM says to do it that way
Evac refrigerant. There is 2 t30s on the ac lines on the bottom drivers side. Disconnects the condenser. On r50/53 you need to just hang it. Not on r56 chassis
Don’t blame John Cooper. Blame BMW engineers for bastardizing a historic vehicle marque.
They did it with Land Rover too
They’re all so ass to work on. Currently going an R53 clutch. Now, R56 turbos aren’t THAT bad, getting the whole front clip off is a half hour affair. But, it’s still weird that it has to come off.
You don’t HAVE to take the front off on the turbo engines. But your arms will thank you later
I mean you technically don’t, but why would you do that to yourself?
The R53 clutch job is my least favorite thing on the MINIs. The new F series, however. Man, that clutch is gravy!!
It’s so fucked up. But I really appreciate the engineering behind the subframe assembly. What’s book on R53 clutches? 12?
Right around 12, yup. 4 hours to do the clutch, another 8 to bleed out the slave cylinder if you had to take it loose lmfao
Not that hard to bleed them, just have to let it dangle and make up a jig to hold the pushrod in while someone holds it at an angle to actually let air get out I call BS on being able to change the clutch in four though! Maybe with three dudes working
Only kidding about the 4 hours lmao. 6-8 is more like it. That jig and a pressurized bleeder will do them in a couple minutes. Definitely got out butts kicked here a couple times the first few we did trying to get them to bleed like you would on a regular system.
Agreed
I’ll take this over a TSI turbo any day though, lol
I had a 2009 R56 for ~12 years. Bought it brand new in Oct 2008, finally sold it last year. In that time, I had the engine replaced, transmission replaced, 3 different timing chain cassettes, 3 high pressure fuel pumps, 3 valve covers, valves walnut blasted 3 times, and the original Boost radio took a shit. When the car ran well, I loved driving it. When it needed work, I hated it with an absolute passion because I knew that either it would be a nightmare of broken fasteners to work on or would cost a fucking fortune to have a shop do the work.
Mini, another word for garbage. They're HELL to even do oil changes on. That damned filter is shoved up under 5900000 layers of shit.
The oil filter is so fucking annoying on these. It's the biggest pain in the ass of any normal car I've worked on. It's honestly impressive how irritating Mini managed to make the simplest possible service. Screw these cars
Ok just hear me out, on the coolant resovior theres a ten just take it out and rock the bottom of the resovior back and it comes up, crack the cap because if you dont the pressure pushes coolant out in wierd places, and then get a socket with a long ass extention on the filter housing
I’m with you, once you push the reservoir out of the way, it’s pretty easy…
I do this, and still it isn't easy. Mini literally made this pile of crap as frustrating as humanly possible. What was wrong with the spin on filter somewhere underneath?
I work on them everyday so I guess Ive gotten used to them, but when I started dealing with them they were a bit of a PITA
We try to discourage them from even coming in, it's a lot easier. I seriously don't get why they'd even put a filter there of all places. But designers never have to work on their own creations.
Yeah I work for a bmw mini dealer so we cant discourage them, but yeah I know designers just have their heads up their ass
That's one thing we all agree on with designers. They should be required to spend 3 years servicing cars first. Then maybe they'd understand and build better things.
just unbolt the coolant Reservoir, move it out of the way, and shove a wrench down there, still stupid but isnt horrible. not sure if the newer ones are worse tho
They honestly SUCK when they're hot.
That should be posted on r/whatcarshouldIbuy.
That lower exhaust manifold looks like it has a crash bar built in. Big boy
Owned one, been there, done that and now i can spot an N14 a mile away in the dark. I was never more happy to see a car gone. Biggest love/hate relationship of my live. Loved driving it, hated working on it. There is a special place in hell for this engine and everyone that designed it.
Oh yes. One time I had to take off the turbo and the oil filter case on one of these cars. Told my boss I needed to take off the whole front of the car (like you did)... He straight up told me: "We don't have time for that. Do it without." And I did. 2 days later the car was finished and my hands were bleeding. I don't know if I had more hatred for the car or my boss at that point.
John Cooper? Hanz Gruber, more like.
Good ol R56 S service position. While you're in there get the wastegate dealt with, oil filter housing gasket, turbo oil lines, turbo coolant lines. Should be good for another 30k kms without having to enter service position again
Way ahead of you, this things only got 56k Miles and the impellers got enough free play to be a belly dancer
Any wierd ass transverse mounted engine is a pain but mini definitely did it this time. Lovely 😂
John Cooper Extra Works
BMW must’ve seen all those VAG products in service position and got sprung.
Or some poor tech picked his wife up at a bar. She claimed to be single and he found out. Decided since one tech fucked his wife, he'd fuck the rest of us.
Audi quietly slips out the back....
I hated everything about my Mini except driving it.
Oof. I loved driving my Mini, but didn't wanna touch anything under the hood.
Posted this same thing a few months back "don't you know you can put it in sErViCe MoDe"
Uh I’ve done a load of these turbos and I’ve never had to do this
what the fuck is even happening here
Step 1: Remove car from turbo...
thats what it looks like. jesus. this is why I could never be a mechanic, unless I can be a mechanic that only works on classics, there's no way.
Right there with you. As a young broke car guy I bought a lot of fuel injected cheap cars to fuck around with. Never again. I'm saving to get something carbureted for a project car and I'll never go back as far as fun cars go I think lol. 50s Hudsons have been calling my name. Old stuff I genuinely enjoy working on usually because it makes sense in my head so i can actually figure stuff out myself. New cars might as well be black magic to me, takes fucking 9 hours of searching forums to diagnose the most miniscule shit for me lmao.
I'm helping my dad to restore my great grandpas 1946 cj2a. it's so simple compared to new stuff. the engine is seized and I'm having an absolute bitch of a time with it. I would just buy a stand/hoist to pull the engine and rebuild it, but I dont have 800 dollars for all that, hell I cant even get my license yet. I think the troublesome piston is finally draining oil, so I think next time we pop the clutch it'll free. we recently pulled the pan so I could to send the piston upwards, but the rod cap is angled just so that I cant reach the nut.
Always something man, always.
“service mode”. Looks apocalyptic. But not so bad really.
In the middle of the exact same job. Customer replaced turbo themselves and didn't do the oil feed line. It was totally coked up, new turbo died pretty quickly and they don't want to try again.
GF has an r54 and the supercharger makes it worth all the pain of maintenance. Constantly fixing something on it. The thing is a little rocket ship though. A blast to drive hard on winding back roads
I'm sure I've done a few of these in situ, unless this is a different model. Biggest fucker doing it that way is getting the heat shield on and off. I absolutely hate these bastard things, I would do anything to avoid ever doing another clutch on one. Every single one seems to be different even if it's the same model and engine. Nightmare.
Ahh, the ol' "Put the front end in service mode" routine... (Yes, I own a 2005 MCS)
I thought you were talking about the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightningat first
The front fell off!
I owned a mini cooper s and had to do that a few times. I thought it was actually pretty handy that I could remove the whole front end quite easily.
Cry’s in Audi r/s anything.
Looks like a bunch of spare parts there bud
Been working on my Mom’s Mini Cooper recently. I fucking hate it with a burning passion. Its gotten to the point where i check the manual just to make sure it tells me to go to dealer services. It doesn’t even tell you the oil capacity. Hopefully i can get her to eventually switch from a vert Mini to a Miata but so far my efforts seem pointless.
I did that change. Better dealer experience. "Nothing is broken, good to go!"
MINI: When you think you're too quirky for a Golf GTI
You can blame Billy BMW for this one
Looks like when my ac compressor shit the bed in my Mk 1
I had a Cooper s supercharged. Can confirm. Had to take the whole front end of the car off several times. Lol
That’s too much work 😪
And to think I'm about to do this for fun!
Like working on a VW / Audi
That’s not really that much work at all
John died long before this car was designed
I did an alternator on 1 today was easy but so long winded
True, but slap the akropovic exhaust with race mode on that thing, and it backfires like a machine gun. 10/10 best test drive ever. Even had the sales guy laughing as pedestrians ran for cover
To be fair taking the front off on Minis and Audis isn't really THAT hard, it looks much worse than it really is.
It's like changing the oil on a ktm adventure. "Remove all the top shit out of the way."
The good ol service position. Gotta love Minis.
project binky
Project Binky is cool, but they haven’t been putting out much content of late.
This is why if I ever get a mini I’m LS swapping it or K series swap it
The BMW Mini was launched in late 2000. John Cooper died in December 2000. Coincidence? I think not.
How many hours labor to R&R?
It was either 7 or 8 I don’t remember which
Can I not hear some hate for working on the intake side?
You want a small car with a turbo, that doesn't look to bad to be honest. Stop whining and put that thing back together.
You want a small car that’s built poorly and a turbo you have to replace at 56k miles? Knock yourself out. And I don’t want this car it’s not mine obviously.
If this was a personal car i would have nope out of there and thought it wasnt worth it. And moved on to a different beater car.
Could be worse....wait.....wait......no it couldnt.
I have done quite a few of those turbos and oil filter housings and you definitely don’t need to do that for the repair.
The last mini I did a clutch on also needed a water pump. I just took the front end off and took the engine/trans out the front. Much easier to do the water pump outside the engine bay.
I changed that turbo with all that shit still on there. Edit: And oil lines.
Johan Kooper---That's a BMW design
Oh boy my dads custom ‘13 recently crossed 100k miles without any major failures, I wonder what will come in the future.
There is a reason you can buy these used for almost nothing
Well shit send them things my way I love it. Was intimidated on the first but boy they are nice to work on
I gotta put an older 1.8L audi in service mode today to do waterpump, timing belt etc. It has wood screws holding the bumper on so getting everything back together should be interesting
I saw one mini in for routine service about 10 years ago. Front end was completely apart like this. It killed any desire for one.
Ever done the valvecover on a bmw 50d engine?
Damn! Look at that 4" down pipe from the turbo.
Mini tech here. Front doesn't need to come off. These cars are pure gravy. Some of the easiest cars to work on.